practical living
Were there any differences between the age groups that you looked at? Yes, we broke it down between different age sectors. What was interesting was that the younger end, the 65- to 69-year-olds, were almost twice as likely as the over-70s to say that they felt isolated, and identified as lonely. [ This was surprising ] because if you look at the demographics … a good proportion of those people were still working, so they were going out and about, and quite mobile.
When asked to give reasons for why they felt isolated or lonely, among the key reasons [ cited ] was not knowing enough people. They were much less likely to interact with a neighbour.
Neighbours came out in this survey, and in the previous survey, as being really important. Having a good neighbour, and someone you can confide in, who lives very close to you, is very important to your general feeling of connection and wellbeing. I think this [ is important in the ] 65 – 69 bracket, because they’ re in an age of transition and because they haven’ t really adjusted yet – it would be my hypothesis – to living more in their community. They haven’ t spent as much time in their community as those who are older. Maybe they haven’ t formed those bonds yet, in their immediate community, so they’ re much more likely to feel isolated or lonely.
I think that’ s really important for us and councils, and other care providers and stakeholders in the community, to be aware that this age group actually seems to be more vulnerable to feeling isolated and lonely, even [ more ] than the older group.
You said loneliness and social isolation were not going to be resolved without addressing them directly and providing practical solutions, and that Whiddon was doubling its efforts to keep people connected. What will that work involve? We offer aged-care services across residential aged care, community care and independent living. So a lot of our focus is around keeping people connected to their communities, to the people that matter to them, to interests, to things, to places. That varies from person to person, so we’ ve developed a number of programs that are focused on that social connection, and can be tailored, and work across all of our aged-care services.
Keeping our clients connected to their community [ is important ], but [ so is ] finding opportunities for them to connect with each other. So developing a community among our own clients and residents [ is also a priority ].
Our creative ageing programs [ are another way to keep people connected ]. We’ re looking a lot at intergenerational programs where there are reciprocal-type programs where older people can take on a mentoring role, so it’ s not just about younger people having something to offer in those types of programs. It’ s also about what older people can give back. We find in other types of research that we do, and it’ s also well known that, as you get older, the need to contribute, to give back, to participate, to have meaningful activity stays the same. It doesn’ t matter what age you are. ■
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At CQUniversity Australia you can choose to study a variety of contemporary health issues relevant to the aged care sector. No matter where you are in your career, we have options to get you where you want to be, from our VET qualifications including valuable work experience to our postgraduate courses designed to provide you with contextual professional development opportunities.
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